1st Birthday Party

Last night we had a great birthday bash for Avery's First Birthday. We had a bunch of family over and celebrated with ducks- Avery's favorite animal! Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate Avery's first year of life! We are so happy she is part of our world!

{cake, cake, and more cake}

{Avery's cake}

{cupcakes for everyone else}

{duck pond drink}

{Avery was completely spoiled with gifts and was
grateful for cousin Abbie's help unwrapping them!}

{Avery wanted this duck all day and kept saying "Du- EE!"}

{So we were completely surprised when she was
scared out of her mind at the first touch!
I think she thought it was a stuffed animal at first.}

{With a little encouragement she started on the frosting
(on the back of the duck)!}

{We tried turning the ducky back around but she got upset as soon as she saw its face}

{I can't believe we have a 1 year old!}

{Happy Birthday Avery! We love you!}

Birthday Girl

I can't believe that a year ago we were holding this angel in our arms for the first time! Looking back at old pictures of Avery has gotten me pretty emotional and I am so grateful that she is in our lives. As much as I miss her tender tininess, I love the stage she's in now. There are giggles and singing, dancing, and talking. She is growing so fast I can hardly stand it!

{Happy Birthday beautiful girl!}

Happy Halloween!

This was Avery's first Halloween! Last year I was doing sprints around my parents' neighborhood trying to put myself into labor. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I like dressing up and I LOVE fall! So we had fun getting Avery all dressed up in her monkey costume and we even ended up going Trick-or-Treating with Grandma Nielsen!

{I love her grin here!}

{posing with her monkey after trick-or-treating}

{Happy Halloween! We hope yours was as great as ours!}

Autumn Walk

This weekend we took a family walk to enjoy the fall leaves and the gorgeous canyon! It was a beautiful day and Avery did great! We got a little cold but we had a great time looking at leaves and just spending time together.

{bundled up in the stroller}

{Avery and Daddy at the waterfall}

{Mommy and Avery}

CONGRATULATIONS BRIAN!!! Brian received an internship offer to work for DELL today! The internship is for next summer and will start in mid-May. We have had Dell at the top of our list since early on in Brian's internship search and we are SO excited that the stars aligned!

Brian, I am so proud of you and your hard work to get this internship! I can't wait to see what Austin, Texas has in store for the Nielsens. You are simply amazing!

"Business" Trip

This past week Brian has been out of school. The MBA program gives the students a week off to go on business trips and secure internships. Brian took a couple days the week before to go to Anaheim, CA for a business conference and ended up spending his week off home with us!

Now, I don't want to complain, but I miss my hubby during the week. He is usually good at coming home around 5 but then there's homework and studying and internship stuff to do. I struggle to leave him alone during homework time and I think I hover too much, so this week off was splendid for us!

Since my parents were spending the week in St. George, we decided to use their house as our vacation. We had a great time watching scary Halloween movies and roasting hot dogs and marshmallow over their new gas fire pit.

{Avery loves playing with Grandma's toys!}

{dinner time}

{Avery is still really loving the dishwasher. She loves to
unload it, especially when we are trying to load it!}

{little helper}

On the way home from Farmington I started feeling a little sick and by the time we got home I had full on chills and aches all over. I spent the rest of the week (Thursday- Sunday) on the couch being sick while Brian took care of Aves and cleaned the house. I'm glad Brian was home, but I wish we could have enjoyed the rest of his week off. Thanks babe- you're wonderful!

Three Muskateers

{best looking crew around!}

Go Cougars!

Tis the Season! Of BYU Football, that is! We have had so much fun going to games this month and even got to take Avery to one of them! Sure, the BYU vs. Utah game was HORRIBLE, but we've had a great time supporting the Cougs through it all!

{Avery loving the game- thank you earplugs!}

{We even ran into Nick and my parents at the BYU vs Utah State game!}

{Rise and Shout!}

{Strawberry footballs- yummy!}

Playtime

I am loving this stage with Avery! She is so much more talkative and has really started to play on her own. She usually likes to know where I am, but she loves her new little playroom that daddy made her!

{I peeked in on her today and this is what I found}

{dolly}

Tess's Blessing

{picture courtesy of David}

This past weekend we drove up to Boise for Tess's baby blessing. We left on Friday night and got there pretty close to midnight. Beth was gracious enough to travel with the three of us and Avery did great on the drive up. I know I'm horrible at picture taking, but really? I didn't take one picture of Tess or Avery or anyone? We had the entire Nielsen clan together which is saying something when you take into account that we have Boise, Denver, DC, Utah, and even Grandma in CA. It was so great to see everyone and to hear the beautiful blessing David gave Tess.

{celebrating Beth's birthday}

If the Shoe Fits!

Avery has really started to love shoes. We can always find her by our front door playing with, sucking on (yuck), and even trying on our shoes. I love to see her try and put her feet in our shoes. She is learning so much- I can just see those cogs moving!

Amazing!

How else can I describe this wonderful man? While Avery and I were away this past weekend in St. George he did some home improving around our house.

He turned our little Harry-Potter-cupboard-under-the-stairs into a playroom for Aves! You have no idea what a transformation this was considering I never took any pictures of our overly cluttered 'storage unit' that was previously inhabiting this space. He cleaned it all out, found new homes for all our items, and even textured and painted the walls! Yeah, AMAZING!

He also made me this awesome shelf for our bathroom. I saw a similar shelf and immediately thought of tic-tac-toe with toilet paper and X's. Brian took the initiative to make this without mentioning it and did everything from cutting the wood and fitting it to painting and decorating it. Yep- AMAZING!

Brian also hung up the shelves that he gave me for my birthday and decorated them. I'm pretty sure I have the most AMAZING hubby in the whole wide world. Yup- pretty darn sure!

St. George

Avery and I got to spend some fun time with Grandma and the cousins in St. George this past week. We had such a great time playing and shopping with grandma. Thanks so much for letting us tag along, mom, even though we slow you down!

{Abbie & Avery playing with the ball}

{Avery rocking Emma}

{Note: This is what happens when grandma forgets
that your child's food is too close and walks away,
leaving said child with said food.}

Doggie!

Yesterday Avery met Mozzie, her cousin's puppy. She was terrified at first sight, but soon warmed up enough to get closer to him and sneak a little touch. She loves dogs, but has never really been that up-close with one. Usually when we see our neighbor's dog or hear him barking she perks up and yells Doh! DOH! and gets really excited.

{I love this picture}

{I think Mozzie slipped her a big kiss on the
face right before this picture}

Dinner at the Nielsens

Avery is starting to insist on feeding herself. It seems convenient in theory- Brian and I actually get to eat our dinner instead of feeding her and eating ours cold, etc. But when Avery is done 'feeding herself' we just have to either make more dinner or scoop hers off her body and the floor to make sure some of it ends up in her mouth!

{We've learned that bowls are over-rated}

{and plastic cups ROCK}

{and that Avery is the cutest thing in our world}

{even when she's covered in spaghetti sauce}